I Can Hear Voices
by Light1
Summary: Alucard falls ill but Seras is the one who suffers.


**I can hear Voices. **

Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs people who are not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he'd be mine.

Rating: PG

Set: During the Manga.

Authoress note: Alucard falls ill.

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**I can hear Voices**

**Part One**

There was a general consensus concerning vampires, they were stronger and faster than mortal men, they had formidable powers and some could even change their shape. They drank blood to survive and were killed by holy water, stakes and sunlight. No where was it mentioned that they were susceptible to the common cold. Seras had believed that now that she was dead she was beyond the grasp of such things like fever, flu and even the more serious illnesses. None of the books, movies and video games had ever had a chapter, scene or level where the lead vampire had to spend a week in bed with the flu.

To be entirely honest she had never given it much thought until Alucard had vanished. He had disappeared three days ago, there had been no great tantrum before hand, no overdramatic exit, he had quietly slinked off and had not reappeared. Walter had voiced some concern but it was gentle concern and Integra had not listened. No one had been really worried at that point, it would not be the first time Alucard had slinked off in a sulk for no discernable reason. On the eve of the second night with no appearance Walter had approached Seras and made comments that perhaps she would like to check on her master. For while it was not uncommon for him to sulk it was uncommon for him to stop eating, even for a day. Alucard did not go off his food, ever. So Seras had wandered down to the end of the hallway on which they both lived. His door was older than hers and rusted in places, it was ice cold to the touch, far colder than anything else down here. Seras pushed against it but it held firm, unsurprising considering that the hinges looked to be rusted solid. She used more effort and forced the door to open an inch. The noise it made would have woken the dead. The screech as the hinges protested their use raised the hair on Seras' arms and back. If Alucard had been sleeping he was certainly not going to be any more. But when Seras looked into the room through the gap she made she saw nothing.

The darkness was thick within but she was a vampire and it posed little hindrance to her. She could clearly see her master's chair and more importantly see that it sat vacant in the oversized and empty room. She scanned the rest of the room encase he was hiding, she wouldn't put it past him to do such, but he was not there. She pulled the door closed and winced at the horrendous noise. Sears had returned to the upper levels to find Walter discussing something with Sir Integra. He smiled when he saw her approach.

"Ah Miss Victoria, just who we were speaking about," he said, Seras glanced at Integra who looked firm and unamused. Her arms crossed across her chest and her usual cigar burning away between her fingers.

"Um, yes," Seras said trying not to feel like an infant before a rather stern matron. "Um, Master's not in his room."

"He's sulking," Integra said "it's not the first time and it won't be the last. The man is a child." She glared at Walter. "You should stop worrying Walter, he wont thank you for it."

"He's not eating," Walter said. "He has as you say 'sulked' before and will no doubt do it again but he always eats."

"He just wants attention," Integra muttered "Walter I need not tell you that I am too busy to play his games,"

"But I think he's sick," Walter pressed. Integra looked at him for a long moment. Her expression was frozen in blandness; she took a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly.

"But vampires don't get sick," Integra said. Seras frowned, she had never heard of vampires getting sick, what was Walter talking about. Walter again gave them both a worried expression, his brows down in a frown and his mouth set in a hard line. He held his ground, Integra rolled her eyes,

"Alright if I call him here and you see nothing is wrong other than a matter of pride will you please let me be." Walter nodded. Integra huffed and went very still. Nothing happened.

"Try again," Seras pressed feeling Walters worry start to infect her. Alucard always came when Integra called, even if he didn't want to, he always came. He could not ignore Integra, the seal forbade it. This meant that the only time he would not come would be when he could not come.

"Alucard," Integra's voice shook a little when she called him aloud, and Seras knew Walter's worry had infected her as well "Alucard come to me now, right now." Again nothing happened.

"See," Walter said after a long moment. Integra nodded and looked down. Seras watched her as she took a long drag on her cigar, her eyes closed.

"It's alright, you need not come now," Integra said. Seras frowned, Integra saw her expression. "If I don't cancel the order he will be compelled to obey. If he cannot obey and the order remains the seal will hurt him." she took another drag of her cigar. "It was something Abraham used to do, give him an order and then make him incapable of obeying. It was a lesson, to show the power of the seal."

"It was a form of torture," Walter said, Integra nodded.

"That as well." She agreed. "Right," she said louder, sounding more like herself "we will go and see the old monster and see what has happened."

"He wasn't in his room," Seras said when Integra started down the hallway.

"You searched his rooms already?" Integra asked. Seras paused, she had only peeked into a room, and Integra had clearly said rooms as in more than one. He could have been in there after all and she had been too cowardly to go and have a proper look.

"Miss Victoria?" Walter said.

"I peaked inside one room," Seras admitted, Walter sighed and looked away, Seras felt guilt twist in her stomach.

"Well lets have a proper look," Integra said and continued on. Seras followed behind Walter feeling foolish and cowardly. They reached the door to Alucard's rooms and Integra kicked it hard. The sound bounced around the hallway and echoed into silence. Integra gave the door a push, but it did not move, Walter helped and still nothing.

"Would you mind Miss Victoria?" Walter gestured to the door, "he does not use it and the hinges rust," Seras nodded and pushed the door. The same horrendous noise that the hinges had made previously came again. Walter and Integra both flinched at the volume while Seras forced the door open the entire way.

"Some WD40 might be in order," Integra said when the door was fully open. Walter nodded, and stepped forwards. The room was pitch black as before and seemed to contain only the tall chair and table. It was the room Seras was used to seeing her master occupy. Walter tried to turn on some lights but the lights remained dark.

"The room is empty," Seras said, realising she was the only one who could see anything. Integra pulled a flashlight out of her pocket and flicked it on.

"Over there," Integra gestured to a door Seras had not seen before. The door was a similar colour to the wall and covered in dust. Apparently when you walked through walls maintaining the doors lost their appeal. Integra lead them over to the door and gestured for Seras to force it open.

This room was just as dark as the main room; it was smaller and had more furniture than the other room. A bookshelf sat against the wall opposite the door and a large comfortable chair that looked old and worn sat next to it. There was even an old television and what looked to be a pile of VHS tapes.

"I did not expect this," Seras said softly,

"Even monsters get bored," Walter said, Seras could hear the smile in his voice. "There's an old Nintendo in here somewhere as well as a PSOne I think. I can't remember if he ever bothered to update them."

"I'm going to slap him," Seras said "he called my mobile a useless piece of human technology, why can he have a telly and game consoles when I can't even have a phone."

"If you're quiet finished," Integra had gingerly picked her way across the den room and was standing at another concealed door.

Seras helped Walter navigate the chaos in the dark and then forced the door open, this door did not protest as much as the previous two but a fine layer of dust fell when it opened. The room on the other side was like the previous two pitch dark. It was the same size as the den room, and contained an ancient wooden twin bed, Alucard's coffin, a small table covered in empty bottles and a large chest of drawers.

"He gets a bed!" Seras snapped, "that's really not fair,"

"He sleeps in his coffin without being told to," Integra muttered, clearly well aware of the arguments between Seras and Alucard regarding the coffin. Integra shone the torch around the room, letting the light rest on Alucard's coat which was thrown on the floor along with a shirt, trousers and boots.

"Odd," Walter muttered, "he's not the tidiest creature admittedly, but he's not normally that bad. Normally they're thrown on a chair rather than the floor."

"You come in here?" Seras asked, Walter shrugged

"Someone has to get the empty bottles. Occasionally he leaves the doors open, a subtle hint he wants the place cleaned." Walter moved further into the room and almost tripped on a sheet. The bed was empty, and the sheets had been pulled off, they trailed across the floor into the coffin. The coffin lid was half off, the sheets pulled into it and buried under the sheets was her master. Integra walked to the coffin and knelt beside it.

"Alucard?" she said, "Alucard," she poked him hard with the flashlight. Alucard did not respond. "This is ridiculous Walter, he could be dying and I wouldn't know what to do," she snapped, Seras took a sharp breath, Integra gave her a look. "I spoke out of turn," she muttered "but I think you might be right Walter, something is wrong with him."

"G'way."

Everyone looked down to see Alucard with an eye half open watching them. Seras felt relief flood her, making her legs weak, she hadn't realised just how worried she'd been until he moved. She all but skipped across the room and knelt next to the coffin, she reached down to touch him only to have him flinch away. Integra glared at him.

"What is wrong with you?" she snapped at him,

"Muffing," was the mumbled response "tired," he yawned displaying fear-provoking dentistry "ohkay in few days."

"You're sick!" Walter snapped, Alucard mumbled something completely unintelligible, and then coughed. A minute later he sneezed.

"G'way," he muttered again, Seras reached out again and put her hand in his hair only to flinch away herself.

"You're absolutely freezing!" she snapped looking to Integra in panic. Alucard muttered for them to go away again but went ignored.

"I'm going to go and look at the journals," Integra sighed, "Walter make him eat something, and Seras help Walter." Integra stood and pointing the torch at the floor walked away leaving the other two with the half asleep and grumpy Master vampire who had gone back to sleep.

**Part Two**

Three more days passed and Alucard did not move. He slept until someone woke him and fought, feebly, when they tried to make him eat. Seras had managed to get some down him but it had remained down for less than an hour before he woke up retching. They didn't try to feed him again after that. Keeping him warm proved useful, he slept easier when warmer, but keeping him that way was difficult. Walter dragged down space heaters from the upper levels and turned them on full. Hot water bottles were also useful but had to be refilled every hour as Alucard's temperature plummeted and forced the bottles cold quickly.

Integra searched the journals with very little in the way of luck. Apparently Alucard disappearing for weeks on end was not unusual and none of his previous masters had thought to investigate why he occasionally disappeared. Despite this Walter calmed down, clearly comforted by Alucard's grumpy nature and snappish replies to questions when they could manage to wake him, which was not often.

Seras however was suffering, she was nervous of her master's current condition. He was always so formidable and to see him unable to even wake himself, or hold his own weight when awake made her afraid. But worse than seeing him like this was the nightmares. She had begun to have nightmares the day after they had found him in the basement, nightmares about things that could not have possibly happened to her. She was used to strange dreams, but they were strange in the way that dreams can be strange, one minute you're having tea with Winston Churchill then Brad Pitt is yelling at you to get out of the bath. These dreams were strange in a different way, they were very clear; the level of detail was amazing. They felt more like a memory than a flimsy dream.

"I'm telling you Walter it was like I was there! I could smell the blood!" she said when Walter gave her a condescending look, "I could feel the weight of the armour; feel it when I fell off the damn horse," she grumbled "I nearly broke my neck."

"Miss Victoria it was just a dream," Walter said "sometimes they can be unsettling."

"This was more than a damn dream Walter," Seras shivered, "It bloody well hurt. My whole back ached when I woke up."

"Maybe sleeping in Master Alucard's room is unsettling you," Walter pressed. "His chair might be comfortable for him but for you, maybe not. It would certainly hurt my back." Seras shrugged, she didn't want to admit how worried she was concerning her master. But it was clear to every one when she had started sleeping in his room. The first night Walter had caught her on the floor by his coffin she had been so embarrassed that she had backed off a bit, she'd been sleeping in the oversized chair the last two nights.

"Just making sure, I mean what if he needed something?" she said irritated that Walter had found her out. "He can't hardly bloody move,"

"If he says he will be ok in a few days Miss Victoria then I trust he will be alright," Walter pressed; maybe sleeping in there is upsetting you. It is very dark after all."

"I'm a vampire Walter I like the dark," with that said she stood up and walked away.

Walter was probably right but still it irritated her that he was not more sympathetic. He'd been so worried before, it was unfair that he had relaxed and she had not. She walked down the hallway towards her room but walked right past the door. Perhaps she would raid Master's VHS collection again or borrow a book; it was a bit dull just watching him sleep the days and nights away.

She was half way down the hallway when she first heard the sound. It was faint at first, and it echoed. Seras shook her head, it almost sounded like her ears were full of water. But despite it's faintness she recognised it instantly, it was sobbing, a child sobbing. Without wondering what on earth a child was doing down here she ran towards it. She froze when suddenly her feet were not coming down on the cool stone of the basement floor, but instead crunching through crisp snow. But the crying was louder and without really questioning why it was snowing in the basement she ran on.

The boy couldn't have been older than twelve. He was dressed in expensive rags; he was wearing the ruins of a once fine suit of clothes, although Seras did not recognise the style. The boy looked at her and smiled, then spoke in a tongue Seras did not know.

_"Domn!" _

Even though she did not know or recognise the language she still knew that the boy had just called her Lord. He walked towards her, his arms held out. She smiled down at the boy feeling a lot taller than she knew herself to be. But she stopped smiling when a man came and stood behind the boy. Without a word the man raised a blade and brought it down hard on the boy, he was grinning at her the entire time.

Then suddenly the snow, the boy and the man were gone. She was alone in the hallway, her hair and clothes damp from the snow. Seras did the only thing she could think to do, she ran. She bolted all the way to her master's rooms and slammed the door, only when the door was firmly closed could she no longer smell the blood.

"What the hell was that?" she whispered "I'm going nuts." Another sound made her jump but this sound was solid, real and not like the others. It was the sound of a glass hitting the floor but not breaking. Seras trotted through to her Master's bed room, Alucard was awake and trying to eat. He was glaring muzzy daggers at the glass and it's spilled contents. Apparently he liked his weakness just as much as she did.

"Muff," Alucard muttered eloquently as she lifted the glass. Seras smirked at him, and sat down on the floor next to the coffin. She had tried to convince him that he would be more comfortable in the bed but he had thrown a, admittedly feeble, tantrum. In the end she had let him stay in his box and had brought clean sheets and a fresh pillow, the sheet he pulled on top of the ones he was already using but the pillow still lay on the floor, was ignored.

"Go back to sleep," she muttered at him, before realising he had already passed out again, "typical," she snorted. "I had a strange dream last night," she said, talking despite her master's unconsciousness, "I was in a fight, but it wasn't a normal fight. There were horses and men with swords," she sniggered a little "I fell off mine."

Alucard shifted under the nest of sheets and Seras stopped talking, reaching over to check on him. He sneezed into the folds of a sheet and settled down again. Seras sighed, she would have to calm down, after all who ever heard of a vampire dying from flu, or a cold or whatever the hell it was that was wrong with her master.

"Man-Flu," Seras mumbled to herself, "you think you've got it tough I saw a little boy killed this afternoon." She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. "Perhaps Walter is right and I am just unsettled by the situation. After all that was not real. It does not snow in basements." She shivered remembering the feel of the cold "great now I'm hallucinating, how marvellous." Seras sighed and settled down to spend the rest of the day and night with her master.

The next evening Seras woke up feeling stuffy, the heat in the room was stifling to anyone who wasn't the freezing Alucard. She stood up and stretched, listening with satisfaction as her joints clicked. Sleeping hunched up on the floor was not comfortable, even for a vampire. Looking down at the bundle of sheets in the coffin she pulled the layers back until she could see her master. Alucard looked awful, the lack of food meant he was losing weight fast, his checked had become sunken in just a few days and he had great dark rings around his eyes. If a normal human were to see him they would have thought he was terminal, not a vampire with a cold.

"You look awful," Seras said to the sleeping vampire, "lets see if we can be a bit more successful with getting you to eat today." She stood and headed out to the kitchen.

"Good evening Miss Victoria," Walter smiled as she entered the lower levels kitchen.

"Hello Walter," Seras said, "um, I'm going to try and feed him today." Walter turned and looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"After the last attempt Miss Victoria I think it best not to rush him." Walter said and held up a hand when Seras went to speak. "I know he looks awful but your kind always do when you don't eat, you lose weight quickly. The sickness wont be helping that. But he will look worse than he is. Trust me, I've seen him looking little more than a decimated corpse but he was well able to destroy half a dozen grown men with ease."

"Walter," Seras said tiredly "he tried to eat yesterday." Walter frowned. "When I got back to his room after our chat he had tried to lift a glass himself but dropped it. He passed out before I could think to refill it."

"Oh," Walter smiled "that is good news." He went over to the fridge and pulled out two blood packs, he cut them open with a large pair of scissors before tipping them into a small milk pot and putting it on the cooker.

"I've done this before form him, on special occasions." He muttered when Seras raised an eyebrow. "I'm not doing it all the time for him though. I am not his personal chief."

"It would be a pretty easy job," Seras smiled, Walter snorted. "Um Walter," Seras started, Walter stirred the blood and glanced at her.

"Yes, Miss Victoria?"

"I had another nightmare," Seras said "but whilst I was awake this time."

"That is odd," Walter said, his tone neutral, Seras sighed feeling distinctly like he was not taking her seriously. "I was walking down the hallway and there was a boy crying in the snow, he called me Domn, I mean Lord, and then another man killed him."

"That is awful," Walter said, "perhaps the stress of this has gotten to you worse than we thought." He paused and looked at her "Domn?"

"Lord, yes." Seras said feeling huffy.

"I did not think Alucard would teach you languages," he muttered, Seras frowned,

"Walter, I saw someone kill a child, what are you talking about languages for?" Seras said.

"You said the boy said Domn," Walter pressed "it is Romanian, old Romanian. I am simply surprised that Alucard taught you that but hasn't taught you how to correct your shooting yet."

"Thanks Walter," Seras smirked, and shook her head. Walter took the blood off the heat and tipped it into a large green cup. He put it on a small tray and handed it to Seras.

"Straw?" he said, Seras laughed "I'm serious, if he cannot hold it himself a straw might be a good idea."

"Why not just give me a sippy cup, Walter." Seras laughed and turned away "I'll help him."

She headed back down the hallway sniggering at the idea of someone giving Alucard a brightly colour cup meant for children. She doubted Hellsing's enemies would be quiet so intimidated if they could see him now, or even less intimidated if they could see him using a child's sippy cup. But the humour left her quickly and her thoughts turned to Walters words before. She began wondering when her master had taught her what Domn meant. He did sometimes slip into his old native tongue on occasion, usually when he was exasperated with her, but he had never bothered to translate for her. But he must have done once, no one else could have and it made sense, how else would she have known what the child was saying.

Seras was lost in her thoughts when she walked into the woman, or rather through the woman. Seras managed to keep hold of the tray and turned slowly around, her heart hammering in her chest. She could smell the sweet perfume before she finished turning and something else, like soap and silk mixed together. She looked at the woman who was absolutely beaming at her and dropped the tray.

The woman was beautiful; her dress was cream in colour and intricate in design. It was the first thing Seras noticed before she had a chance to take in the rest, the lady was tall, her hair ran in a long black braid down her back and she beamed at Seras. Her eyes were big and clear, a beautiful chocolate brown and they glistened in the light from the ornate candelabras that hung from the suddenly higher ceiling. No one had ever looked so genuinely happy to see Seras before and she couldn't help but smile back. Again Seras had the feeling of being taller than she really was as the woman ran to her and wrapped strong slender arms around her. The beautiful woman barley came up to Seras shoulder and Seras wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders, noting she was wearing armour again except on her hands which were large and masculine.

_"Domnul meu, ai ajuns inapoi la mine_," the woman spoke and again Seras did not know the language but the woman made sense to her. She was thanking her for returning to her and like the boy she called her lord. _"Am ratat tine,"_ Seras felt herself hold the woman tighter as she claimed to have missed her. She buried her nose in the woman's hair and took a deep breath. She wasn't sure why but a feeling of great loss was filling her up as this woman smiled happily up at her. Almost without thought Seras felt herself answer the woman.

_"Si i tu , numai noi am fost sucessful. I voinţă a voi nu have la spre plecare tu iar pentru lung timp,"_ Seras froze as she spoke the words, a promise not to leave again for a long time. How in the hell was she doing this, it was like she had swallowed a translator.

"_Bun_!" the woman laughed aloud at her words and held her tighter. Seras smiled, feeling slender arms grip her tightly and held herself back from holding the woman as tightly as she wanted to, she did not want to hurt her. The desperate need to be close to this woman was almost overwhelming and Seras felt her eyes burn. The woman tried to pull away but Seras would not let go, she knew the minute she did this woman would be gone, she would never have her again and it broke her heart.

She felt herself started to trembled and weep when the woman in her arms became heavier and the stink of river water, weeds and mud filled the air. Cold water soaked through the joints in the armour she was wearing to her skin and when she looked down the beautiful woman was dead in her arms. Soaked through with river weed in her hair and wrapped around her ankles. Her eyes were glassy and her skin cold and discoloured. Seras felt herself start to scream.

That was how Walter had found her.

"Seras!" his voice broke through her sobs "Miss Victoria what is it? "

"She's dead Walter," Seras sobbed, her breath catching in her throat making her words come out broken. "She's dead and I'm never going to see her ever again,"

"Who?" Walter went to his knees in front of her "who's died Seras?"

"I don't know," Seras managed through her sobs, "but I don't want to be here anymore if she's gone," Seras saw herself reach for a shard of the broken green cup. Walter grabbed her wrist and slapped her across the face hard.

"Seras Victoria What Do You Think You Are Doing!" the shout and the sharp there and gone pain from the old man's slap broke Seras away from her grief. Just like that it was gone, she was herself again.

"Walter," Seras said letting go of the cup shard, her hand was bleeding. "Walter, oh god Walter I'm so sorry."

"Come on," Walter helped her to her feet. Seras looked at the broken cup and spilt blood on the floor. "We'll get the mess later, come on." He took her back to the kitchen and sat her down. He went to the fridge and took another blood packet; he put this one into the same small milk pot and set it on the cooker. They were silent together while it heated and Seras tried to collect herself. Walter handed her a piece of kitchen roll to dry her face and it was then Seras noticed that her clothes were soaked through, he shoes as well. Walter set a cup filled with warmed blood in front if her and Seras smiled.

"Thank you," she said, her voice rough, her throat raw.

"Now Miss Victoria, what happened that would cause you to scream like that and then try to kill yourself?" Walter was keeping his voice as level as he could but Seras could hear the strain.

"There was a woman," Seras said softly "she was beautiful, I loved her. She was so pleased to see me, then she was dead, drowned I think."

"Ah," Walter sniffed. "Right can you walk?" Seras nodded, confused "I think we need to go and speak with Miss Hellsing." He stood and went to the door; Seras followed bringing her cup with her. They walked through the mansion, it was eerily quiet Seras thought, but Walter didn't seem to mind. They reached the second floor where Integra kept her office and knocking entered the office.

Integra was as usual bent over paperwork. She looked frazzled which Seras had not expected. There was no mission to plan at the moment, the round table hadn't been causing new problems that she was aware of, it was business as usual, small missions and watching the budget. Yet Integra looked stressed, Seras wondered if she was worried as well.

"Walter?" Integra looked up; Walter nodded and led Seras in to the desk.

"Sir Integra, I wondered if we could have a moment of your time," Walter said.

"Alucard?" Integra asked, Walter shook his head.

"Perhaps, but for the moment we need to discuss Miss Victoria who is having some rather intense visions." Walter sat next to Seras in front of Integra's desk.

"Intense visions?" Integra groaned.

"Intense enough that when she sees a drowned woman in the basement, the floor of the basement becomes flooded," Integra looked shocked, "mildly flooded, just and inch over the floor, a large puddle really." Seras raised her eyebrows she hadn't even noticed. Integra put down her pen and groaned.

"It's bad enough having one vampire with man-flu now I have one with hallucinations as well," Integra sighed, "everything always happens at once."

"Perhaps ... or perhaps everything is not happening at once," Walter breathed Integra gave him a frustrated look, having spent the last few days turning pages in dusty books around her normal paper work had clearly left Integra in a foul mood.

"Walter?" Seras looked up at the butler, her hands shaking. Blood spilled over onto her fingers from the cup.

"What if Alucard's current condition and Miss Victoria's misfortunes are one and the same or at least related." Walter said firmly,

"How can they be related?" Integra sighed pinching the bridge of her nose. Walter sighed and looked unsettled.

"Seras can you describe the lady who died, who drowned?" Walter asked. Seras nodded swallowing the lump in her throat that welled up from the grief of remembering the lady.

"She was beautiful. She had long black hair, pale skin, she was tall and slender, and she had these huge brown eyes." Seras felt her own eyes start to burn and felt a tear roll down her cheek. "She was so happy to see me, and I…I loved her."

"Alright Seras that's enough," Walter said softly, Integra gave Seras a worried look then glanced at Walter.

"She remembers it very powerfully," Walter said "who does that sound like to you?" he asked, Integra looked blank. "Also think, Seras is a warm hearted lady yes, but she has seen death before and she does not have this reaction to every death she sees. When I found her down stairs she tried to cut herself from grief at this woman's death."

"She spoke that language again," Seras snivelled.

"The woman Seras saw, what she said, the language she spoke and the fact that she ... that she seemed to have drowned," Walter said, "I think it was Elizabetha."

"As in Alucard's Elizabetha?" Integra said, Walter nodded. "Why would Seras see her?" Integra looked intrigued now. Walter shrugged.

"I'm not sure why her in particular," Walter said "but I think I know why she might be seeing these things."

"Walter?" Seras frowned. Walter looked at her and smiled weakly.

"I am sorry Miss Victoria, but when you mentioned nightmares before I did not make the connection, seeing the physical effect these have had on you makes me think this is something that happened before. Think now, are you truly sad that this woman whom you've never met before has died?" Walter asked Seras thought about it and wondered why she was so upset; yes it was sad that this lady had drowned but was it sad enough that she had wanted to end her own life because of it?

"I am sad but not that sad, it's …well," she trailed off.

"It's like you are feeling someone else's emotions?" Walter said slowly, he looked at Integra, "I know of only one person who tried to die when Elizabetha did."

"You've made you point Walter," Integra said "But why would Seras effectively be having Alucard's nightmares?"

"When I was younger and your father was alive, he tried to continue Abraham's legacy through the experiments." Walter said, "I am not sure what they did exactly but it knocked the walls in his head down, the shield he had put up, and we all saw things," Walter shifted Integra gave him a confused look.

"I personally woke up one morning to find Abraham Van Helsing leaning over me with a crucifix pressed to my forehead. I felt it burn me, I felt the skin on my head melt and run down onto the bed. When I looked in the mirror I had a burn on my forehead in the shape of a cross."

"Oh god Walter," Seras breathed, Walter shivered at the memory.

"I have never met Abraham Van Helsing, I do not know exactly what he looked like; but for those few moments I knew it was he who was above me, and I knew he would hurt me. I could feel his breath on my skin and smell the whiskey on his breath." The aged man sighed "I was not alone in these visions and lest to say your father did not continue his experiments."

"You think Alucard's walls are breaking down again because he is ill," Integra said smoothly, "then why is it only Seras who has seen things?"

"Seras is his fledgling, she is linked closely to him," Walter shrugged "perhaps the walls are not broken but just cracked."

"So I could be seeing things until he gets better?" Seras was crestfallen; her last little hallucination still had her shaking. It had not been frightening but it had been disturbing and heart breaking.

"I'm afraid so," Walter said, "but this is just a theory, we don't know for sure it could be something completely different."

"Unlikely," Integra said, "we should proceed with the conclusion that this is what's happening. I suggest Seras you remain with your master, if they are his nightmares then waking him when you think you are having a vision will likely end them."

"Yes Sir Integra," Seras nodded and rose to her feet.

**Part Three**

Seras spent the next three days in her master's chambers with him.

She had woken up more than once to find an old man talking to her in Romanian, she had not been afraid of him even when he had wept tears of blood and looked at her with gaping holes where his eyes should have been. She had seen Abraham Van Hellsing more than once but had never remained still long enough to even hear the man speak. After Walters recollection she did not want the man to have a chance to get near her. She did not see Elizabetha again for which she was glad. But despite this by the end of the week she was a shaking wreck.

Integra came down on the Friday to find her curled next to her master in the coffin. Both vampires were quiet squashed in the tight space. Alucard was awake and petting his fledgling like he would a cat.

"I'm glad to see you awake," Integra said slowly, unsure why she felt so much like a trespasser in the room.

"I told you I would be up in a few days," he answered, his voice still sounded rough and his hands were trembling slightly.

"Seras has had a rough time of it," Integra said sitting down on the bed. Alucard nodded looking up at her,

"She saw a lot of things I would have had her not see," he sighed and leaned back "things she would not have seen should she have listened to me before and took the blood."

"Have you fixed it?" Integra asked Alucard nodded and closed his eyes, appearing for the entire world to go back to sleep. "When will you be able to go out again?"

"I can go out now if you need me to my master," Alucard opened an eye and smiled at her.

"Day after tomorrow." Integra said standing up, she walked to the door, "try not to get sick again vampire," she smiled "I need no more drowned women in my hallways."

"I will try my Master,"

**End drabble**

Please Review

Translations: ALL DONE ON ON-LINE TRANSLATORS! Any mistakes please let me know and I will try to get them corrected.

"domnul meu, ai ajuns inapoi la mine," = "My lord you have come back to me,"

"am ratat tine" = "I have missed you."

"şi i tu , numai noi am fost sucessful. I voinţă a voi nu have la spre plecare tu iar pentru lung timp" = "and i you, but we were successful. I will not have to leave you again for a long time."


End file.
